Josstastic

Lie to Me

Posted by: josstastic on 24 July 2014

churchofbuffy:

Cults/Religion.  One of the metaphors we might be able to take from ‘Lie to Me’ is that people can be very wrong about things they believe deeply.  Many people lined up to die because they believed that vampires were good.  We can see that many people die for religious cults, but beyond that, many people hold deeply their religious views.  It’s important to acknowledge, no matter how much stock we put in our beliefs, that there is a possibility that we are wrong.  It’s important to listen to EVERYONE.  If our views are true, we can take criticism.  We can listen to other views.  If our views are true, we should be able to stand by them and make a valid argument for them in the face of opposition.  And sometimes we need to acknowledge when we have been wrong.

Honesty.  One of the most hurtful things we can do to the people we love is lie to them.  All loving relationships require trust: trust with our emotions, trust with our bodies, trust with our secrets, trust with our everything.  Betraying someone’s trust hits the core of a relationship and makes one question if a relationship is real.  The only way to love someone inside and out is to know them inside and out… and the only way that can be done is with honesty.  Honesty can be painful, but real relationships need forgiveness, love, and truthfulness… none of those things are part-way deals.

Life is hard and complicated.  One of the hardest truths we learn as we grow is that life is hard.  Few important decisions in life are easy.  No political party is right 100% of the time, no religion is right 100% of the time, and we will not be right 100% of the time, despite our best efforts.  Life requires us to think seriously about most of our decisions and the way we live our lives.  As Buffy’s story shows, that’s not easy.  It requires us to examine our friendships, choose the lesser of 2 evils, and acknowledge that most decisions are grey.  In seeing that greyness, we can acknowledge the good intentions of those we disagree with and understand that all of us are making tough decisions and doing our best to be our best.

And really, that’s the point of most of ‘Buffy’:  we need to do our best to be our best.  Seriously.  We need to think about the ways we live our lives, make hard decisions about whether we are REALLY keeping the best company, spending our time and money in the best ways, and thinking hard enough about how we go through life.  We should do our best all the time.

Reblogged from: churchofbuffy